The Final Cut.

Speaking about learning.... I have learnt my lesson. Blogging world has a mind of its own which we have to conform to, it is not as free as we wish it could be. Or perhaps.... Malaysians are still largely a very sensitive bunch of people (pardon me there).

In this blog, I have tried my best to share what I know and just discovered, they are so miniscule compared to what even a 14 year old can tell you. That's in order to fish for something more on the subjects I forwarded and to discover if my opinions may be wrong. I envy but love ppl like Pok Ku, Awang Goneng, Poncho, Fazu etc for their surety in telling what they're telling. They educate effortlessly and sincerely.

Hmmm... I have done a hell lot of flirting. One usually fear of getting backfired by fun and love that you share in real life. Ironically, a small cut can make you bleed to death in here. I had my experience of running around in a stranger's place to find an internet cafe and pay RM10 for 10 minutes when I received a call about a smelly comment.

Anyways, the main reason of this final post is because this blog is starting to rule me. It's becoming a pain to my boss's eyes :) I told myself not to stray farther but I keep bumping onto an interesting blog every week. I get an urge to write about everything too. So yeahh.. I need to get a grip of myself.

I'd like to convey my thanks to Fade and iJun, such accommodating souls you guys are, you know I'm harmless.

Perhaps it's safer to face real people so we can appreciate and embrace each other's thoughts better.

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who
have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross.

Thank you each and everyone of you. You all did change my life in such a pretty way.

On Continuous Learning

I have waited for two years for Brian to write about the things we learn from our mentor.

His first effort was finally put onto cyberspace. I'd like to share it with all of you in case you might be interested to post your input on how learning is put into perspective; into an art and how you can apply this in your life everyday.

These 10 items will be fully elaborated later by him:

1. 360 degrees perspective.
2. What you see is what you do.
3. Definition / meaning / impact / values.
4. Effective decision making.
5. Values & objectives setting.
6. Brutal honesty in N way commucation.
7. Constant change management.
8. Continuous learning & growth and all round application.
9. 360 degrees linkage.
10. Information wants to be shared.

"We're as good as dead the moment we stop learning and the moment we give up our passions."

"Throughout life, we get clues that remind us of the direction we are supposed to be headed... If you stay focused, then you learn your lessons."
Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross.

So Brian, that should serve to pressure you to write more consistently dude!

The Geniuses in Showbiz's Twists.

Malaysia heard about Aznil Nawawi's recent win for Most Popular TV Host Award 2004 held by Berita Harian.
In Hollywood, the creme of the crops in showbiz are mostly intelligent people; intelligent about what the social environment and the world want from them. They in turn do laborious things to give what they think their audience should get.

Aznil, is one hellufanintelligent guy. He morphed from the Wan Kamaruddin ("apake jadah" guy) of Edisi Siasat, NTV 7 image he had about 10 years ago to a flamboyant yet still slim shouldered jovial figure today. Many said he's gay although used to be married and has two kids. Mahathir Lokman baru la iye.

Many saw the way he treats men up the stage, there's nothing feminine about him. When he treats the women up the stage...well, well, he's got control! He could flirt, he gives respect just like any normal men out there would behave, poke fun towards the VIP guests. The part 'being in control' though... he could be better than most successful blokes I know.

He knows his market audience well; behind his fingertips. I doubt there'll be two of him. I witnessed how he controlled a crowd of 15,000 in a stadium before for a live show, from the teenagers to old folks and all walks of life, so effortlessly.

**********

"Not only has he blessed us with his beautiful voice but he has also written so many wonderful songs that have chilled (those chills that run up and down your spine – female fans understand!) and thrilled millions over the years."

Why of course! Listen to Endless Love and anyone would agree. Listen to happy tunes like "The Best Things In Life Are Free" which he wrote together with Janet Jackson, BBD and Ralph Tresvant, how it could mend your Monday blues right away.

He sings of love, longing, and loss with such intense passion that it’ll leave you feeling like you’re the one that he’s singing about!

Could anyone else pull these kinda lyrics and still be idolised?

Excerpt from: If I was the One.
I see the way he treats you
I feel the tears you cry
And it makes me sad, and it makes me mad
There's nothin' I can do baby
Cause your lover is MY BEST FRIEND
And I guess that's where the story ends.

Excerpt from: I'd Rather
And so I left the one at home to be alone
And I tried to find out this one thing is true
That I'm nothing without you
I know better now that I have a change of heart
I'd rather have bad times with you
than good times with someone else

(Geez, he addressed the wife as 'someone else' in there!)

You can still listen to it while making love and the lyrics won't stop you from hitting your climax.
*****

I guess it's all because by all means and talent, they can.

Something for Supper in TTDI?

Left: A plate of Puttu in Sri Paandi, TTDI. Same row with Shakey's Pizza.

They told me you can't find this anywhere else. At night, you should notice the two smokey cylinders infront of their shop. That's how they steam the brown thing called 'ragi'... what is it called in English? It's a substitute to 'Putu Mayam' as it's also eaten with red sugar and grated coconut.

The 'ragi' would crumble even before it gets into your mouth, so best to handle it with your hand. Good to have it while it's hot, flush it down with a cold glass of 'teh ais'.

Oh people, their banana leaf beats the one in Jalan Gasing and Jalan Othman, to me lah. Get that all vegetarian banana leaf meal there. Bite that fried 'cili padi' and your sinusitis will be cured for good!

Try this too: Substitute condensed milk in your 'teh' with cow's milk!

Healing Pains.

He's called the Wacko Jacko for a reason, he's been psychotic towards himself. But back then, his dance steps, his songs, his art, exude so much positive vibrations. But beware! Enjoy those things only from afar.

The rumours about him being a child molestor started since parents think it might be cool to get their children sleep over in MJ's place ever since Macaulay Culkin started it back in the early 1990s. Macaulay wasn't a victim though. Not everyone's as accommodating as MJ, or rather, not many superstars would choose kids to fill in their loneliness. He was too high up there at such tender age. Being generous is probably one way to compensate his shortcomings.

The first and the second case a few years after that were solved outside the court as far as I can remember. He reared a monkey and later wanted to look like one too. That's not enough to warn parents to keep their children off him.

I don't understand it, parents send their ill son aged 13 (suffered cancer) to MJ? What does a 13 year old know about MJ, how old was he at the time Beat It was a hit, a cell in the scrotum? What other kind of healing power do they think MJ has (insert wanker's jokes here)?

MJ's attorneys should just tell these opportunists or parasites or people who thinks they can earn major passive income that, they've read the pattern and history of MJ and they still wanna get close to him, therefore, take the consequences! They practically asked for it.

Isn't it obvious that this is all about MJ healing himself more than anything?
***

That scenario is somewhat similar to the world of weblogs. There's a lot of things and ways people do in order to heal themselves. Some drown themselves with work, some sings, some sleep over it, some heal others in order to heal themselves and some blogs it out.

We choose to put our souls where the world could see it, judge it, scrutinize it, love it, hate it.... again I must say, it is a difficult feat to portray someone you're not when it comes to writing-especially continuously. If you can do it, then you are a winning movie director-huh Yasmin? Brava bella!

Weblogs come with a feature where readers can comment unto what you have broadcasted. In our country, there's PPS to help you get your entry a higher chance for more hit rate, for those who seconds, for those who objects to our entries.

There's so many instances people would write about something completely provocative, when lashed back at, he typed a long entry about his grievances and warnings. That's the pain Menj.Org used to bring to himself.

What is it that was within our minds? To reach only readers who are in favour of our thoughts? Fill me in people. We already, advocate people to say anything they want to us by deciding to be a blogger itself. To me that's the way it is. As transparent as we are at saying what we want, don't we owe our readers as much?

If we do not learn anything or do not like what the reader said about our entry, we have the greatest authority to ban them or just delete their comment. That's all! Save our precious brain cells from getting consumed about it.

The market readers in our blog world is thankfully made up of civil minded people (four letter words happens just sometimes or not often is there ppl telling us to go to hell and call our mother names).... surely the brains we wanna continue picking on for constructive responds.

Force of Nature on Our Differences

It was 7:30pm, 18th March, 2005. That's 1/2 an hour after the concert was supposed to commence. The ground area in front of the stage was still empty.

Lauryn Hill started the night anyway, accompanied with her own 8 piece band just to accompany her sing with her guitar. She's not bothered by the crowd-just concentrated on strumming her guitar and feeling her songs, 8 songs altogether. I thought she must be really tired and need to quickly retreat to her hotel room.

There's at least a 10 minute interval between singers to keep rearranging the stage. I felt sorry for those performers, our most generous fans were an hour late, the rest were tired after a day's work and the air conditioning wasn't that efficient.

There's a good mixture of all races and age that night, 13,000 of us who donated up to more than RM10mil towards the Tsunami victims. Tis a trust for a long run.


Sheila Majid. After many times of being reluctant to sing the songs she sang while being under R.A.P, finally, all that hatred for her ex-producer/husband was put aside.
All renditions that night were her classics. Manusia (Allahyarham P. Ramlee's), Warna, and what's nice was that she sang Ikhlas Tapi Jauh together with Anuar Zain and Dayang Nurfaizah, the same exact way as in the album. That song must've been really close to her heart as I'm sure she hadn't the chance to sing it often.
The one thing we just have to give it to Roslan Aziz is his capabilities in bringing out the best in singers under his care. They rose to their greatest heights only while they were under his recording company.

Sorry, Zainal Abidin's album after R.A.P was not really worth his and anyone's investments. World beat is still his genre and his music with Headwind in the 80's shall be evergreen.

Wyclef Jean, who would have known that they command the crowd with such gusto? They told us exhausted crowd to stand up, we stood up. When they allowed us to sit down for 3 minutes, we sat. When he asked us to wave our lighted cellphones side to side, the indoor stadium looked fabulous.
Lauryn Hill's gestures looked rather distant though, when she reappeared to sing with them. On and on again Wyclef asked the audience to give her a big hand and cheer towards the reunited Fugees (for the night). It was a matter of minutes when Lauryn was seen smiling and alive singing their famous numbers. They had certainly rejoiced.

Backstreet's Back Alright! I don't care what y'all would say. Love them mucho! They brought their own 5 piece band. What they have which we hardly see among the other boy bands is their bond, how much they enjoy each other's company. Every step they take on the stage takes into consideration of possible photography finish and angles. It's really timely that we have this concert and they need to promote their upcoming album in June. I hope they'd continue to produce songs with meaningful lyrics and choruses on well built climax. My dream to listen to "Love You More Than That" was actually fulfilled.

Boyz II Men, yeaappp it's obvious how much we all miss them. They succeeded to activate the crowd although it was just on minus one and with one less singer, without much effort. It's definitely that resonating voices. One obvious thing was, they put Innuendo and Ruffedge to shame, can't hear a single word they were singing.

The ultimate freestyler performer, Black Eyed Peas. During their performance, their female member, Fergie's talent shone so bright. These people are circuslike singers, they played band equipment and sang at the same time, they wiggle their legs, jumped from one end to the other throught out all their err... 5 songs (Let's Get Retarded, Shut Up, Hey Mama, Where's The Love, and sth). Fergie, her screams were melodic, she held her microphone, sang and did summersault at the same time! She's got the voice capacity of Avril and Amy Lee put together. "She's macho and sexy at the same time", that's what my friend, Ariff said. They got to do last performance and finished at 2:45 a.m. complete with two turn tables accompanying their show.

Everything direct and indirect that we witnessed was so inspiring!

***

If they could bring Madonna in, I'll go clad in cone bra. Credit wise I'll suffer, but nevermind, for this Jew, I'd pay.
If they could bring Phil Collins, please please hold it in a place like Istana Budaya, Arena of All Stars or something, this guy is all about his musical equipment.
If they could bring Shakira in, please provide standing crowd.

Have a Soul Whetting Birthday!

iJun, if you love Michael Buble, you'll love her, the melodic and stylistic voiced, Renee Olstead. She's only 15 years old, groomed by David Foster, the one who groomed Buble and Celine Dion.

And damn, it's only 9.99 pounds per CD over at your place. I dedicate her song titled You Is You or Is You Ain't My Baby. Unlike the way she sings her other songs, this she may have purposely sang so cheekily yet raise it well with sophistication.

Go on! Listen to it in the shop and you'll pick it up instantly. Imagine leather sofas, quietness, dimmed red lights, me, wooden fixtures and floors, well cooled room with that CD being played. Emmmmmmm..... makes me remember how Celine in 'Before Sunset' wiggled herself (no I'm not one of them lesbos!) when she sang at her place.

Or, pick up Jazz in the City and listen to how they made those songs theirs, sorry I can't seem to find the album on Amazon.com, Alison Monyet has gotten up to such a majestic level. Poncho, can you believe that's Cyndi Lauper's voice if you hadn't read the list?

You'll get to hear people like Kelly Rowland, Mandy Moore and Sinead O'Connor render Jazz, simply a great buy people! I'll be heading to Ikano's Red Box this weekend.

Have a good birthday weekend both of ya!

The Hunch'sBack (continued)

[You'll have to read 1. The Hunch 2. The Hunch (continued) 3. The Hunch'sBack to understand this story]

They’re an Indian family, I’m sorry to need to sound prejudice, they are the Indian which other races would call the “k****g” to denote that they are from the lowest caste like the way he puts it and sometimes… yes, the way I put it too.

There’s six little kids looking weary and oily with their mother, all came out of the car and started browsing the kiosk’s shop. They pointed the M&M’s but the mother just ended up buying two cartons of milk.

Coincidentally, B handed me two packs of M&M’s and some money to pay for it. When I needed to return his balance and the items, he said “just give it to those two kids”. He was obviously observant.

My smile was ‘louder’ than the kids’ mother, I imagined so. They’re obviously poor. And how are we all blinded by people who seem to call other race’s names but, in reality, we all live so harmoniously, and when others need help, we’d always put those things aside and help all we could... yeah!

B, although a highborn person he is, helped all he could although it's a mere two packs. See, the project he’s trying so hard to win, the project which so many people want to snatch things away (typical IT scenes), he was practically dead broke spending his own money to make ends meet. The money he had in his wallet was only that last RM15 to last another 5 days.

B passed away very peacefully shortly after.

I realized then, why it was only him I needed to call before I left for Penang instead of my mother and the rest of the family, it’s only him I’d say goodbye to.

No wonder he needed to finish everything fast and call at wee morning to get things done. Thanks to God for giving me a wonderful dream, I knew it was homecoming for him.

*******************

Early March 2005. I experienced a whole week of paranoia that I will get into an accident.

To be continued.

The Hunch'sBack

Point 44: You wondered why 'The Hunch" entry is written years after it was experienced. Well, here's why.

[TO UNDERSTAND THIS ENTRY, YOU HAVE TO READ, THE HUNCH & THE HUNCH CONTINUED]

Months after the life changing dream, a very good friend, B who disappeared for a couple of months due to hectic workloads made a reconnection with me.

B's the kind of person who's got a certain kind of magnetism which makes people from all walks of life gravitate towards him. It's probably his never ending jokes and laughter, or probably his tendencies to explain things in detail, if possible with pictures, if his listeners don't understand what he's saying, or probably, it was his fiery anger towards something which people wanna know about and usually wanna agree about. He's very much a mentor to many and that includes me.

B and I had to spend quite a bit of time together to explore a lead generation programme for a certain product his company was about to complete, it's something complementary to my company's product. There were things we argued as hard as we laughed about, but we always ended up saying sorry quickly because there's another exciting project to discuss about without any bitterness. Although, things were forgiven, I always felt that those arguments should never have happened because he's a much older person and it makes me feel very shitty that I was disrespectful and at times, rude as in many ways I knew his thoughts just remained as just thoughts.

Then came the time when I had to spend some time in Penang for a company's trip. The night I had to pack up, I couldn't lift a single clothing out of my drawers. It was the strangest feeling, I kept having the cold sweat and my knees kept shaking and my heart kept pounding so fast.

This continued till 3 or 4am, I realised I was actually in a great fear about something but I can't figure what it was. My imaginations blew out of proportions (REALLY OUT OF PROPORTIONS), I dreamt that I died, what if I will really pass on in Penang. If it's all so beautiful in my dreams, why am I in fear right now?

I got tired of walking up and down restlessly. I thought, in order to pacify myself, maybe I should start asking for everyone's forgiveness.... right! Call people up at 4am to say 'I'm sorry if I've done something wrong to you before'?!

But, the strangest thing is, I only thought of calling one person, which is B. See, we had a silly silly argument about racism late that evening. He had this thing against the lower caste Indians and him being someone I look up to.. I was too disappointed with it and tried to explain why he shouldn't say the things he said till we again, ended up arguing till the end of our meeting.

B was completely puzzled why my sorry this time is not, "I'm sorry about the yada, yada". But it was a 4 a.m "I'm sorry with all my heart, please forgive me for all the things I've done wrong".

And true enough, after that packing up was a jiffy. In Penang, my paranoia made me avoid standing to near the banisters, no swimming in the sea and swimming pool. During the gala dinner, I finished my food and went right upstairs to my room and still wondered in what way will I pass on. There's no way the hotel building will collapse once I fall asleep.......

I came back to KL in one piece, kickin', alive! At that time, I thought I was just a short term looney.

Four days went by with lotsuf other things to do, as at 2 or 3 am I'd still get calls to help idealise something out. I did wonder what's all the hurry was that he couldn't wait till day time.

On Friday, we finally met for dinner. As we were walking into the petrol kiosk 24 hour shop we saw this beat old Kancil with so many little people in it parked at near the entrance.

To be continued again.

I have disabled comment box for this entry as this is just a story I want to share one way.

Can a Toyol be Press Charged?

I wish I could read the Chinese papers. They say them Chinese journalists are the most thorough. I think it's more because only their race could read what's written; like a code only for a certain set of people. So people outside their race can't apply much red tapes.

It looks like Toyol the Thiefmaster, still gets his way with the Exco's bungalow cum club house place (now claimed to have 'depreciated' to RM21mil). I guess it's a token instead of letting the rest of his projects continue.

At least, Carrie Island (Port Klang) is no longer a dump site and the native people in the island are now jumping with so much joy (go visit that place you people, it's a stench, yet there's a seafood restaurant right above garbage land). Who cares if some coupleahundred people rot to death right, no one can hear them weep and wail anyways.

At least, the fishes in Kelana Jaya pond (tis a water catchment area) are jumping with joy too and this prevents the big buildings and roads around it from probable flooding during heavy rainfalls. But that's quite cunning of you Toyol, when there's no more land to give away, make one! I think, if I can't afford a big land by 40, I should just live underground, do they charge for that?

I don't know if Toyol really did his job at mending the situation at Kampung Kuantan to help preserve the endangered fireflies. Eh! He was more interested in making money instead of spending em.

Now the contractors who opened up the protected land are now are not just slammed with stop work orders on their multimillion ringgit project, now they are being being sued for the land they were allowed to work on. Now, aren't they going to sue Toyol the Thiefmaster back or someone's life may now be at stake?

They (and I) sometimes put down our No 1 man, who speaks somewhat monotonous, doesn't look energetic enough, too engrossed about religious reformation yada, yaadaa. But I have to give it to him after reading his comments about what he saw (in Shah Alam) from bird's eye view, very straight forwardly showing that he has no mercy over Toyol the Thiefmaster's doing.

Who is the strongest and influential society's spokesperson you know of? Do you think he'd dare to say such words against his cabinet people? Do we remember someone prefer to cover the his and his baddies' asses instead to keep himself in place? Well, I now think it's true that we should just concentrate on our No. I man's strengths than his weaknesses. He's trying whatever it takes to stop corruption, clean up things shoved under the carpet for years, it won't be easy. Slow and steady Mr! It doesn't take just one person to membersihkan nama bangsa Melayu, we (that includes me) all need to remember that.

Thanks to Juan for the headsup.

Smell their Smokes Bob Wong!

It's the time of the year again where it's part of my job to go spot some new and good places to hold our annual award ceremony event for our high flying customers.

The guidelines of the place is something I set for us:
1. It has to be a part of a hotel :
to guarantee the food quality is at least above average
when served to 150+ ppl.
to guarantee that the servers are well trained in terms of services
to guarantee that the sofas are not badly stained with stale beer of 3 years.
to guarantee that the ambience is not too yuppyish or looking sleazy
2. It has to be a pub cum restaurant so our customers can stay on after
the show is over

We were informed to check this place called IndoChine in Crown Plaza Hotel. The name IndoChine delighted me at once coz I remember it being the holding company of Savanh. After years of being out of the night scenes, I was out again just because we like the clean, high ceiling, water element, well lit, tastefully yet practically designed place apart from its good choice of retro mixes (which repels teenagers!). The dining place upstairs is always fully booked in the weekends.

Again, we walked into another high ceiling dining place without the air of Savanh at all, gloomy, purplish all a'la Pizza Italiano place, but I didn't give up yet. We were introduced to the co-owner of that place; a spin and span British accent speaking Chinese middle aged man Mr. M.

Mr. M explained that they just took over the place and the decor belonged to the previous owner (phewwhhh!). He introduced us to his elder sister, S who was there discussing the renovation of that place. She's a plain looking lady that you see buying provisions in the wet market, but very well spoken just like her brother.

Mr. M showed a brochure of the rest of the clubs under IndoChine in order to assure us that the restaurant we were in will look very pleasing. Ladies and Gentlemen, they have 10 branches in S'pore and 1 in Hamburg now 2 in Kay El! According to him, Savanh at Doraisamy is lower than B Grade in terms of decor and we're assured an A Grade decor for this one by end of April. I was thinking.... wow!! it doesn't take a man with dragon tattoos, long thin pony tail to own such a successful chain of outlets (the dusk till dawn discotheque owners in PJ now sports short hair and runs club cum restaurant chains too ni Bangsar)!

I then thought, I would love to spend more time with Mr. M and his sister, S and find out what's behind their head with regards to this huge empire when their passion seemed only towards interior decoration and making money is completely secondary.

They said they can't wait to unload their container filled with Buddha statues, silk frills and teak furnitures to do up this place. They want to make sure the place becomes so successful so they can close Savanh which is too bustling with people pushing for protection stash and no protection for customers when it rains.

* CoChine * IndoChine Hamburg * Aquadisiac * Nude Restaurant * Savanh * IndoChine Waterfront * CoChine Galery * Bar Opiume * IndoChine Club Street * The Forbidden City * Madame Butterfly * Bar Cocoon

We all know how others keep themselves in business eih, yet we see how often Modesto's, Heaven, Boom Boom Room and the likes shut down and reopen now such as Budaba and stuff... a fad or is it that the downfall is due to the extra 'unwanted' overhead?

So far, it makes two successful clubs who refuse to condone to such business dealings. Two thumbs up to you both! If this precedent is emulated by all, I can't wait to open a place myself.

Brett: In case you read this and wondered who Bob Wong is, he's is one of the pioneers of disco's and clubs owners in KL and Penang. Pioneer may not necessarily mean successful.

The Sakai's Thingindangling.

This must get out of my system. The scene of us trying to bargain from the 'orang asli' (aborigines) selling tapioca, jungle fruits, petai and honey at the road side, often on our way back to our obscure hometowns.

A small comb of petai in the city's wet market will cost us RM5. If you buy it straight from the 'orang asli', they'll ask for RM2. And we have the heart to give them only RM1 for a bigger bundle that's enough for all the neighbours on our street??!!!

A bottle of manuka honey from Australia, some of us will spend RM88 per jar or RM8 per jar for the normal ones. We want to pay only RM5 for freshly yielded honey in a big bottle from the oily, tired looking 'orang asli' who carried bottles and bottles of those who walked miles? I witnessed this at Fraser's Hill.

For those who have not seen a petai tree, you won't know how these people risk their lives to make some money to buy their weekly stock of good cigarettes or chicken organs (these things are the only extra luxury for these simple people instead of the usual 'rokok daun' or small little monkeys for meals).



The petai tree is indeed tall with thin, bended, branches. Unlike the 'duku langsat' which fruits sprouts from the corners of the barks, the petai are at the endmost of each branch. Imagine climbing it and trying to reach the end of the branch for the strongly clung combs of pods??! One tree don't necessarily bear many of it or the structure may allow them to only reach just some. To get thick good pods, they must be plucked from mature trees which are usually 30m in height. And they don't grow in a cluster like two three trees in one spot okay! They don't farm these things! So give them their bloody two bucks if you want it!


Those dangling knobs are the petai flowers, look at how thin the branches are.

If we can't pay RM10 per bottle of fresh honey from them, go hunt for it ourselves or get them in the supermarket and help the Oz instead of making these people's foreheads wrinkle and their hearts sink thinking of how to bring back all the bottles miles back home.. again. How come we don't do the same towards the DVD sellers? There are people we want to bully and people we want to keep? Bullying is alright, but towards the right people ok.

P/S: this story has nothing to do with my hunch nor dreams.

The Hunch (cont'ed)

My sleeps are hardly intervened by nightmares and dreams. I guess that's why when I get one, I'll usually remember the storyline quite clearly.

Of all the dreams, there was one that was life changing. It was on the 31st December 2002. The days before I was thinking hard of how I could reinvent myself, improve this and that before I get a year older. In my mind, I was with the same company since I graduated and suddenly there's this feeling where I don't feel that I've contributed enough towards the society in any way at all. I felt useless when I know I can do more. What kinda challenges do I need to get myself into then? Get married? Get a new job? Get extra job? Self funded projects, and see if it's profitable? Whatever, as long as I don't have to do the same thing the same way year after year.

Back to that dream I had on the 31st December, 2002. It was the first time I was clueless on what I should do the year after, there's absolutely no plans and that freaked me out.

It was a dialogueless dream, everything was in pastel, the floor was carpetless, there's a sofa overlooking a wide glass panel overlooking an indoor garden. I saw myself walking near the sofa and suddenly I fell without tripping on anything. My body was facing upwards in normal lying down position and I saw my spirit rose staring calmly at everyone who's wondering why I have gone lifeless, they looked sad but they were calm.

During the moment my spirit moved outwards, the feeling was completely serene, peaceful, quiet, fresh, rejuvenated, free! And 'I' sat myself on the sofa by the window and stared at the garden while my family moved the body elsewhere. I could 'hear' myself smiling all the while.

As soon as I woke up, I felt so good, completely recharged.. and happy. I thought it's not that bad at all being dead, is that strange? My uncle, who loves to read mystical stuff told me that my dream has a good meaning. He said that I will really experience a life changing moment in the year after. Deep in my heart, I thought, I don't need to go through any physical event to feel that way, it has already changed me in a certain spiritual way. I suddenly have the courage to do more risky things (which I shall not elaborate). I did not write down a wishlist this time, my wishes were few thus easily remembered.

..to be continued.

The Hunch

Tis an inbuilt human intelligence. You know... when you are so close to someone that the waves you emit starts to jive with the other.. you'll just develop that sort of clairvoyance. Like the way twin sisters feel each other's emotions and foresee what may come next... the 9 months duration of being together in the womb had probably seal the synch of the two soul waves.

'Sixth sense' or psychic senses is rather over rated coz that can happen to people who don't even have any connection between one and another.

People say, if we dream of losing our tooth, one of our family members is either about or already passed away. I heard those things since I was little. I dreamt about it and right the day after, the news arrives. Is it the same with people of other ethnics?

People say, if we dream of directly witnessing somebody's death, that person is actually suffering mental exhaustion and in need of your help. And yes, it happens to me towards my sister and vice versa. It happens often when she's studying for her exams, when I suffered badly because of love once upon a time, the kind of death she saw of me in her nightmares was horrendous, yet very insightful.

The way minds and souls send messages to each other is indeed very fascinating.

to be continued.

The Literate Messenger.

I received this comment just yesterday in my October 2004 entry titled "The Illiterate Messenger". This is the kind of answer I've been waiting for, someone who sees a mistake and help to correct it with great effort and very constructively, therefore I'm compelled to publish it here. I need to correct those who thought what I wrote was right. I have visited the sites provided and what a wonderful discovery...truly so much intellecual insights, you try it.

On what is said about women and men being the same, I have always agreed on the specializations that we have. It's the reason men and women would need and complement each other.

Thank you so much Yusof Estes, Salam.

At 11:36 AM, Anonymous said...

Where is the evidence that Shaikh Tareq Swaydan said any of this?

I have met him a couple of times while traveling around to give lectures and I know him personally. I have never heard him mention these things.

Whoever did mention them needs to be corrected in a number of issues, inshallah.

First of all, Allah does NOT say that men and women are equal. Read the Quran itself (for a FREE Quran download: http://www.islamtomorrow.com/downloads/noblequran.exe )

Look up surah An-Nisaa' verse 34: Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their means. Then read in surah Al-Baqarah, verse 282 about witnesses to a contract: ... And get two witnesses out of your own men. And if there are not two men (available), then a man and two women, such as you agree for witnesses, so that if one of them (two women) errs, the other can remind her.

The concept of men being the same as women is ridiculous and should be dealt with only from the true Muslims point of view. Men are not equal to women and women are not equal to men. Both are different and both have seperate and important roles to play in life. The idea equality only applies to the treatment with justice for both and the status in front of Allah for those who come to the correct belief and then satisfy their roles in life as Allah has prescribed for them.

Next, using the FREE Quran download mentioned about, click on the magnifying glass (word search of Quran) and type in the word 'man'. You will find it says the number of occurances is not 24 - but rather 771, and the plural form 'men' comes up 1013 times.

Now check the word 'woman', you find only 22 (still not 24) and the plural 'women' appears 83 times.

Now check out 'life' - 203!

Now 'death' - 100!

'People'? - 524

'Messengers?' - 180

'Angels' - 154

'Satan' 100 and 'devil' - 34

Magi c 60 . Fitnah (dissuasion, misleading) 60

Magic (60)? - Nope

Fitnah (dissuasion = 0) misleading - only 1 (Surah Fatihah)

The only Quran quote from the Quran was the dua of Yunus (Jonah in the whale) surah Al-Anbiya, verse 87.

We have something on our website that is very important for all Muslims about these kinds of lies and misrepresentations about Islam, Allah, the Quran and the prophet, peace be upon him. Please take time to enjoy it at:

http://www.islamtomorrow.com/lies

Let us know of any corrections to what we have. Thank you so much. We look forward to sharing with everyone, inshallah.

Thank you, jazakalah khair was salam alaykum,

Yusuf Estes
National Muslim Chaplain
Washington, DC - USA

FREE QURAN to download:
www.IslamTomorrow.com/downloads/noblequran.exe